This disclosure relates to the fields of computer systems and data processing. More particularly, a system, method, and apparatus are provided for matching entity names between two data systems.
When one data processing system is adopted for use in place of or along with another system, data often must be migrated from the old system to the new system. In environments in which not much data is involved, rekeying or retyping the data into the new system may be a suitable method of performing the data migration. However, when a significant amount of data is involved, on the order of thousands of records, tens of thousands of records, or more, manually reentering the data is usually not an acceptable method of migration.
Further, when the data records identify associates, friends, colleagues, and/or other contacts, there is a natural desire to ensure that the data, after migration, is accurately associated with the same contacts. Thus, if a given contact is identified with one set of unique information (e.g., username, electronic mail address) in an old data processing system, and is identified with a different set of unique information in a new data processing system to which his or her contact data is being migrated, it is highly desirable to match the contact's information with the correct contact in the new data processing system. Because different fields or details may be used by the different systems, it can be difficult to perform this matching in a timely and/or accurate manner.
Yet further, existing methods of data migration usually operate in batch or offline modes and may attempt to match contacts from the old system with a static (e.g., cached) set of contacts in the new system. Because the migration is not performed in real time, the migrated data may not be available when required and, in addition, may not be accurate because new contacts may have become available in the new system after creation of the static set of contacts.